From the Miami Daily Metropolis, 1 February 1918
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The headline would be familiar to anyone who drives in Miami or South Florida today: "Street Paving Now Going Ahead After Long Delay." Except in this case, it wasn't referring to I-95, the Palmetto Expressway, or any of the other seemingly eternal road building and repair projects that seem to pop up every fall when the rains slow down. Instead, these newly-paved roads were in downtown Miami. "It is estimated that within three or four weeks...the entire down-town district, between First street and the Miami river, east of the railroad, [will be] paved either in asphalt or wood block." No doubt those who waded through sandy roads on a rainy day would be pleased with the news.
Downtown Miami, c. 1916
Florida State Archives
In South Florida, there is something like pride in being able to remember a place before a road, or at least a paved road, reached it. And it seems they will soon reach everywhere. While Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad created a stream of migrants to South Florida, highways created the deluge. Carl Fisher's Dixie Highway, which branched in several directions in Florida and famously led drivers to his Miami Beach development, blazed the trail; the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which provided federal matching funds for states to build interstate roads, widened it. In the 1920s, road-building became a mania. Most famously, the Tamiami Trail cut across the Everglades and connected Tampa and Miami, but we shouldn't overlook the building boom that constructed U.S. 1 and other federal highways.
A Caravan on the Dixie Highway
Florida State Archives
Paved roads made it much easier for tourists and settlers to come to Florida, of course. As they arrived, they reshaped the landscape. A separate article in the day's paper touted that publishers of the Automobile Blue Book had added hundreds of pages to its 1918 edition to accommodate the demand for information on traveling to Florida. "Miami is the Motorists' Mecca." the publisher told locals. "From Savannah down the east coast to Miami the roads are in better shape than ever before."
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He did have one complaint, though: the roads needed more signs to keep travelers from getting lost. Anyone who has driven around Miami might agree the need is still there. Indeed, the entire region might want to spend a little more time mapping where we're going before we pave it all.
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